OLD COINS.

Wairarapa Age, 3 July 1929, Page 4

OLD COINS.

INTERESTING COLLECTION ON VIEW. SOME RARE SPECIMENS. An interesting collection of old coins is at present on exhibition in the window of Mr. G. Dallas, Queen Street, Masterton. Among the large number on view are several rare specimens of by-gone ages. Two Roman coins of beaten copper are the oldest in the collection. These are about the size of a farthing and the thickness of two pennies. Another very valuable piece is an Elizabethan gold coin, equivalent to a half-sovereign in value, but extremely thin. Other notable exhibits include a number of silver coins of the reigns of Edward 111., Henry IV., and Elizabeth. These were found in an English garden and like the. gold coin mentioned above, are all very thin. A large number of copper coins include two half-pennies of William HI., coined in 1699. Irish half-pennies of the reign of George 111 and some other interesting copper coins, are on view, including one termed the “Paris Miners' Halfpenny,” of 1701, the meaning of which is not known to Mr. Dallas. A rather large coin of the Isle of Jersey, representing -a thirteenth of a shilling, in the Victoria era, is, strangely enough, larger than a modern one for the same state, but representing a twelfth of a shilling.